


Henry

by AuthorByNight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 20:59:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3743362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorByNight/pseuds/AuthorByNight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry Evans joined the second world war at sixteen, not knowing that he would never really leave it.  Originally posted on Livejournal as "Unsung Heroes."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Henry

**Author's Note:**

> As a second warning, there are allusions to PTSD (which I tried to handle carefully). 
> 
> Also, I appreciate constructive reviews, including Britpicking. (And history nitpicking, if need be.) I tried to be as accurate as possible, but I imagine there's always room for improvement.

**Unsung Heroes**

As a black muggleborn war veteran, Clancy Shacklebolt understood that there were many overlooked stories. The wizarding world didn't really recognize his efforts, because the war had been a muggle one; only a  woman named Lydia had been interested. She was a historian who specialized in muggle and wizard relations. Clancy wasn't sure what she saw in him, but he loved her, married her, and together they had a son. Kingsley, for the crown  Clancy had fought feverently to defend.  But times being what they were, the muggle world was wont to dismiss him as well. So Clancy set out to collect stories of men like him, and soon his book became not just about black veterans, but all sorts of overlooked veterans who would never make the history books. Clancy didn't just want their war stories - he wanted to know what happened to them in the aftermath.  He started this venture on the cusp of the first wizarding war, and did not finish until 1995, when the second war broke out and he knew releasing a book about muggle soldiers could be risky for his son. When the war ended in 1998, Clancy finally sent it to be published. There were now 100 stories.

What Clancy didn't know was that one of those stories was directly entwined with the end of both wars with Voldemort.

 

**The Young Soldier**

 

Henry lied about his age, joining the war at the age of sixteen.  His parents were, Henry imagined, a mixture of scared and proud. It was fitting that a man from his fairly distinguished, if not particularly wealthy, family would go to fight. And it was better him than his older brother, whose wife was expecting their first child. To Henry, it wasn't only that - it was that his brother was his world, and while Henry didn't want to die, he would rather lose his own life than lose his big brother.

  
But the war meant more than Henry had anticipated. It wasn't a quick fight for good, but a long many years in which Henry lost comrades one way or another. He saved a great many men too, but it was the ones who he couldn't save, the wives he'd held while they cried against his chest, the confused children peering through the curtains who haunted his dreams.   
  
For about a decade after the war, Henry lived in a fog, jumping at the sound of car backfires and always on the lookout for someone to save. In his mind, the war was not truly over. There were more fights to be fought and won. His father found work for him - and everybody knew it. It was his brother, not Henry, who was the successful Evans brother. Henry was the fool whose head had been lost in the clouds and smoke of war. Harried Harry, they called him.   
  
But a young woman who worked in the same building didn't care about those things; she only saw Henry defend a little boy against his raging father, she only saw Henry open doors for her, she only saw Henry's flaming red hair. She called him Harry sometimes too, but lovingly.   
  
Henry didn't want to get too close to her, he knew he'd be too much for her to handle. Besides, being from a good family herself, surely she'd want more than the second best son. But he couldn't stop staring at her green eyes, greener than the eyes of anyone else. So Henry, bow-legged and mad from his time in hell, asked the beautiful Rose Dudley on just one date. They went on many more, and soon they were married; within just five years, they were the parents of two girls, Lily and Petunia.   
  
  
**A Saving People Thing**   
  
Henry tried to be the best father and husband he could. On the nights when the dreams became too much, he would slip outside so maybe they wouldn't hear him. What he didn't understand was that the girls could hear leaving, see him pacing outdoors, and sometimes they would wait for him to come back in, so they'd know he was okay. Henry didn't realize they remembered every strange outburst, knew not to make sudden noises around him. 

He knew that Petunia was a little too obsessed with normalcy, though, and wondered whether she resented the wealth of her uncle and cousins, while they lived mediocre lives, whether she resented all of the strange rules he imposed. Henry couldn't help but take more comfort in Lily, although her strange powers - which, as far as Henry was concerned, meant she was destined for great things only God could understand - scared Rose a little.

But even with two daughters and a wife, Henry was never sated. He continued to help everyone he could, from homeless beggars to wealthier men who needed a ride across town. Maybe that would make the nightmares stop.

One hot summer afternoon, Henry went to the bank to withdraw money. It should have been a simple transaction - withdraw money, then find the perfect present for Petunia. But the man in front of him with a gun had other plans.   
  
Henry saw the teller's wide eyes, and remembered he'd recently been married. Henry remembered his many fallen comrades, their wives, their children. It wouldn't happen again. It _couldn't_ happen again. Without any further hesitation, Henry began to wrestle the robber to the ground.   
  
That evening, the teller rang the doorbell. Lily and Petunia peered through the curtain as he spoke to their mother. For the first time in many years, they huddled together as their mother sobbed on the teller's chest.   
  
  
**Namesake**

"He has her eyes," Lily told Petunia on the phone.   
  
She hadn't spoken to her sister in years, although when Dudley was born, Lily had sent a card to no avail.    
  
"I see," Petunia said coolly.   
  
"You don't care about that at all?" Lily asked.   
  
"Dudley has something even better. He's got her maiden name."   
  
Rose had died a few years after her husband died, a local hero now. As far as Lily was concerned, however, she'd died before that. Her love for Henry had been great, fierce even, and without him her spirit was lost. She'd stopped taking care of herself, leading to an early death.   
  
"Right," Lily said with a sigh. "Well, I named him Harry."   
  
"So?"   
  
"You know, after Daddy. Henry."   
  
"He hated when people called him Harry."   
  
"Not when Mum did."   
  
"Oh, I'm certain he hated Mum's nickname for him," Petunia snapped. "So whatever family honour you think you've given him, he's still a freak."   
  
The phone clicked, and Lily closed her eyes.   
  
Was Petunia right? Had their father truly hated the nickname? Lily supposed she could have just called him Henry, but it hadn't sounded right, and anyway, there could only _be_ one Henry. No, Harry seemed the best way to honour him.   
  
Lily held Harry close to her. "Nevermind your aunt. It's probably not safe for her to be around us right now anyway."   
  
Lily knew Harry would live to his namesake admirably. She just hoped he'd never suffer the same demons.   
  
  
**Shadow**

When Harry made the connection, the book open on his lap, he sat in silence for a long while.   
  
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked.   
  
"Well," Harry said, "I guess I know where I got that stupid saving people thing from. Always thought it was my Dad..."   
  
"You're not him," Ron said firmly.   
  
"I know I'm not my Dad-"   
  
"No, I mean Henry. I know how you think."   
  
"Am I, though? Is the same thing going to happen to me? What does it say that I became an Auror? Maybe I never really stopped fighting either."   
  
"You were going to be one war or not. You know that." Ginny put her arm around him. "And Henry didn't have us. You do. So don't be scared. Be proud."   
  
"And maybe," Luna added, "this is actually a second chance. Do the things Henry never got to."   
  
Harry thought she could  be right. And the least he could do was be glad for yet another connection to his family he'd never known.

 

 


End file.
